Yanis Ben Amor

Professor Yanis Ben Amor is the Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at the Climate School at Columbia University. He is an Assistant Professor of Global Health and Microbiological Sciences and a former member of the Secretariat of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission. He is also the Director of the Columbia-wide “AI and Future of Work” initiative. 

Prof. Ben Amor has over 20 years of research experience developing digital tools for Health and Education.

In Health, Professor Ben Amor has developed digital tools for tuberculosis patients to facilitate their adherence, for HIV-positive mothers to help them prevent vertical transmission of the virus, for malaria control programs to monitor use of resources for an effective control strategy, and more recently, for Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to provide health information and healthcare access. Prof. Ben Amor’s research build on his experience in infectious diseases, mainly tuberculosis, HIV and now COVID-19. He was involved in many projects all over the world, conducting research on new diagnostic tests for tuberculosis and HIV as well as improving quality of care and access to tuberculosis and HIV treatment for patients in developing countries and has previously worked for several organizations such as the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France).

Prof. Ben Amor is currently working on several projects involving Artificial Intelligence, as part of a digital application providing health access to vulnerable populations in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), and to combat disinformation on Climate Change in Brazil, among others. Prof. Ben Amor has also launched a Columbia-wide initiative to study the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Future of Work and Education, with a particular focus on LMICs. 

In Education, Professor Ben Amor led programs in Uganda, Rwanda and India to develop and allow access to Social and Emotional Learning curricula to children and adolescents. He has created mental health programs for school children in low-resource settings, and Digital Education tools to monitor children’s school absenteeism in India using fingerprint technology.

Prof. Ben Amor has a PhD in Molecular Biology. He has published widely in infectious diseases, global health, and prevention. He is also regularly a speaker on behalf of Columbia University and the Climate School/Earth Institute at various conferences worldwide.

Education

• PhD, École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes
• MA, École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes
• BA, Lycée Sainte-Geneviève